How to Plan a Successful Employee Recognition Program

Employee Retention Rate and develop high performance organizations. Companies can improve in many ways but it is critical for the companies to understand that having an Employee Retention Plan in place is an important project. Whether you manage a small business or global corporation the same rules apply.

This is important because incentives should be rewarded based upon known business drivers. Things like increase sales, increase production, or improve customer retention are easy to measure,track, and quantify.

Effective employee recognition doesn't just mean handing a special award to your workers for outstanding productivity (although that is an important aspect of it). It also means fostering a work environment where recognizing employees for their achievement is part of the culture.

Recognition shows them that their individual and collective contributions make a difference and are valued. Praise is a very effective and inexpensive management tool, and should be used extensively. But make sure your praise is genuine!

A company can become "stuck" when leaders are not willing to challenge current assumptions. This can hamper the creative process; discouraging the growth of new ideas that are outside of normal assumptions. Encourage leaders to think beyond the constraints of traditional assumptions.

Determine activities to accomplish your objectives, and the time required for each. Include time for opening comments, instructions, breaks, lunch, etc. Don't schedule too tightly, as meeting segments and activities often take longer than estimated, especially debriefing and discussion of small group activities.

Formal award systems recognize one narrow aspect of the job (such as increased revenue, Morale, sales or productivity) and those few employees who are good at achieving that goal. By contrast, informal recognition programs focus on spontaneous and personal appreciation of employee efforts.

Employee engagement is the buzz phrase for the sum total of all factors that drive employee performance and retention in an organization. The Gallup organization defined employee engagement as "an employee's involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work."

Putting together an effective recognition program doesn't mean that you have to hand out awards to your employees every week, or even every month. There are plenty of companies that institute a quarterly or yearly program that rewards workers for outstanding service, and the costs are more than made up by the additional amount of productivity that these kind of actions encourage in employees.

How to Plan a Successful Employee Recognition Program
Reviewed by Neha Gupta
on
August 07, 2011
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